Lewisham is changing. The borough that runs from the dense Victorian terraces of Brockley and Catford down to the riverside at Deptford and Lewisham town centre has been one of south London's most architecturally active places for the last decade, and that shows no sign of slowing. New homes, retrofitted streets, community buildings, cultural venues, ambitious infill development: the architectural agenda in Lewisham is broad, contested and genuinely interesting.

We’ve put this short guide together to help our clients at the start of their project, and to answer some of the most common questions we get asked. 

If anything comes to mind that’s not covered here, get in touch and we can help find an answer. 

Lewisham's terraced streets are full of homes that work hard but could work harder. A well-designed extension can transform a house that feels tight and awkward into one that is generous, light-filled and genuinely comfortable. But getting there requires navigating planning rules, making good material choices and understanding what the borough's conservation officers are looking for. Here is what you need to know.

Greenwich is unlike any other London borough to work in as an architect. The weight of its history is extraordinary: a UNESCO World Heritage Site, one of the most significant collections of classical architecture in Britain, conservation areas that cover large swathes of the borough, and a planning environment that takes the relationship between old and new with great seriousness. And yet Greenwich is also a borough of rapid change, with new homes, new cultural venues and a growing community demanding architecture that is genuinely of its time.

NMB Meets with Nick Corlett: we talked about the great work the Green LEYF initiative is doing with young people in the Early Years sector and the amazing sense of optimism shared in the face of the big issues.

Infill sites also referred to as ‘gap sites’ or ‘small sites’ are development sites within urban areas that are too small for a traditional developer approach to build on. Sometimes they are too small to build more than 1 or 2 homes and often they are not straightforward to develop on.

Royal Greenwich has one of the highest concentrations of Victorian and Edwardian domestic architecture in London. The long streets of Charlton, Plumstead and Woolwich, the terraced villas of Blackheath and the dense rows of Eltham and New Eltham represent an enormous stock of solid, well-built homes that could, with the right investment, perform far better than they currently do.

Check out the latest edition of our newsletter where we share what we've been up to over the past few months, projects new and old and what's on coming up.

Getting planning permission for a home extension in Greenwich is more demanding than in many other London boroughs. The World Heritage Site designation, the extensive conservation areas and the Royal Borough's active planning department create an environment where applications are scrutinised carefully and where the quality of the argument matters as much as the quality of the design.

A result of changing work patterns post covid is there’s now more empty office space than ever. This has been exacerbated by sluggish growth in the economy, and a period of pause, ‘waiting to see’ with the prospect of a change in direction from a new government - now passed.

Briefing an eco architect is not fundamentally different from briefing any architect. You need to communicate what you want, what you need and what matters to you. But there are some questions that are particularly worth asking when sustainability is a genuine priority, and some answers that will tell you quickly whether the practice in front of you is genuinely oriented toward eco design or just using the language.

James is back from the inaugural ‘Emerging Discourses on African Architectural Practices’ conference in South Africa where he presented his paper: ‘Post colonial collaborative practice: building from the earth at the 32° East Arts Centre’.

Here we write about our proposal for the Net Zero Neighbourhood masterplan, which was the winner of the Max Fordham Archiboo Architect’ Pitch, itself inspired by the Max Fordham House - UK’s first-ever verified net zero carbon home.